Here You Go, Ma'am, I'm At Your Service....Not!

Just in case you think you've come to the wrong place, you have not. Just in case you think this is not the normal theme of my blog, this is it for today. I am still smarting as I write this post and so I stray from the normal sweetness and light-heartedness of my blog.

First time that I am gonna talk about something that irritated the heck out of me in the last few days.

Not since my glory days of teenage-dom when I used to call my BFF (best friend forever) have I ever stayed on the phone for over two hours. I remember we used to talk about anything and everything those days. But I am rambling. This post is not about my dear friend so I shall continue along.

I came home the one night to find out that we have reached our bandwidth cap on our internet usage. Basically, once you've reached this cap, you are no longer permitted to access any internet website. I quickly checked our usage reports and ascertained that there was something seriously wrong. I phoned my internet service provider (ISP) and the toll-free technician tried to assist me to no avail. Two hours later, I am no nearer to a solution to a problem except for an acknowledgement on her side that there was a system error but that she is unable to fix it. Let me get your number ma'am, we'll call you as soon as it's fixed. Here's your call reference number and try again tomorrow, it might be fixed.

Phoned again the next day and spoke to another toll-free technician to follow up on the progress of the problem. Imagine my surprise, when I tried to give my call reference number to be told that it didn't really matter and that I must just tell her the problem.....again. Are you mad? Must I spend another 2 hours of explanation and exasperated waiting? So what is the use of giving out reference numbers if they are of no use anyway? Some explanations later (luckily not as long as two hours), she quickly admits that she can do nothing about it and apologises for the inconvenience but please try again tomorrow, it might be fixed. Would you like a reference number for this call? Are you for real? A resounding NO followed.

Third day comes. Still no word. I decided that morning to research about changing over to a rival ISP. Phoned my ISP again but this time, I became the irate customer that I normally ain't. I demanded to cancel my data line so I could switch over to my new provider. Since nobody has bothered to help, there seems to be no point in me continuing to pay for a service that is not there. Surprise, surprise. The toll free technician tells me that their system is down and that he could not cancel my subscription just yet. Almost felt like deja vu when I heard him say please try again tomorrow, it might be fixed.

Got home from work that night and my family gives me the news that the internet has been fixed and we are online again.

I am still waiting for my service provider to call to tell me that it's been fixed.